Democracity

You are standing on a balcony inside a huge hollow globe. Far below you lies a model city on a round disc: a hub in the bend of a river, streets fanning out from it, a green belt around the centre, and highways running out to five small towns. Around the disc the painted land rises steeply, suburbs first and then fields, up to a hard horizon high on the wall, and above it is the dome. Across the drop, on the far side of the same balcony, a few people stand looking down. On the rail in front of you is a lever, and beside it a brass plaque that reads Democracity, pull the lever. Pulling the lever brings on the evening: the daylight fades, the roads of the city light up, then the city glows, then stars appear on the dome. The evening then stays. The lever can also be pulled with the button Pull the lever. Turn around and directly behind you, set into the outer edge of the balcony, is a doorway with daylight in it: a corridor runs away and downhill, and the sign over it reads Helicline, this way out, twenty-four hours in six minutes. That is the way out of the globe; it returns to the front page, and so does the link Back to the zeppelin in the top left corner of the image. Drag the image or use the arrow keys to look around.